Coronavirus: Screening

(asked on 17th December 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what evidence they have from the UK of COVID-19 appearing in blood samples.


Answered by
Lord Bethell Portrait
Lord Bethell
This question was answered on 13th January 2021

Diagnosis of COVID-19 infection has largely been based on reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction amplification of viral nucleic acid (RNA) from upper respiratory tract swabs. However, detection of viral RNA has also been reported in blood, serum and plasma from small clinical case series.

The frequency and quantification of RNA in blood fractions and the significance of blood as a transmission route remains unknown.

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